User interface (UI) design patterns are a well-established means for capturing reusable solutions to recurring interaction problems. However, existing pattern repositories are largely expert-curated, fragmented across sources, and organized around terminologies that presuppose prior knowledge. This creates a mismatch with the mental models of junior designers, who often approach design from problem- and goal-driven perspectives rather than from canonical pattern names. In this paper, we present a human-centered design space for web interaction patterns that is grounded in the categorization strategies of novice practitioners. Instead of imposing a top-down taxonomy, we conducted a two-stage card sorting study with junior designers (open: N = 10; hybrid: N = 8) to elicit latent organizational principles. Building on these empirical insights and a corpus of 49 verified UI patterns drawn from academic and web-based repositories, we derived a three-dimensional design space structured along the dimensions of What (functional scope), Why (heuristic goal), and How (interaction behavior). We validated this user-derived structure through closed card sorting and tree testing (N = 16). While the functional (What) and behavioral (How) dimensions proved intuitive, the heuristic (Why) dimension revealed a notable mismatch between abstract usability principles and practical pattern application among novice designers.

This pictorial explores textile-specific interaction and various signifiers to communicate them. In a textile workshop, nine designers created 50 samples of potential interfaces, based on everyday actions people perform with textiles and with a specific focus on signifiers. The samples were analysed and categorized as annotated portfolios, which revealed three categories of signifiers relevant to textile-specific interaction design: Visual signifiers, Textile signifiers, and Staging signifiers. The pictorial offers more details on each category and further discusses the Staging category. Following the annotations, a subset of the textile samples from the workshop was further explored in an exploration session to gain insights into users' perceptions and interpretations of signifiers and interactions. The paper concludes with a high-level reflection on the use of signifiers in textile-specific interaction design, as well as considerations for future designers of smart textile interfaces.

Textile fabrication, an ancient human technology, has evolved over millennia, transitioning from a focus on affordability and speed to a current emphasis on sustainability. With Textile ID, we envision a digital garment passport that seamlessly incorporates directly into textile surfaces as a design element to bridge the gap between sustainability and consumer engagement, transforming garments into interactive storytellers of their ecological journey. The visual surface of the garment can be scanned with a smartphone to access a unique identifier embedded within the fabric, which provides essential information about the product’s lifecycle. This work discusses the design space of various visual and textile parameters, proposes design possibilities and insights for implementation. Finally, we showcase a set of sample garment designs and provide design recommendations for designers to use in their future work.

Participatory data physicalizations allow people to physically participate in the creation of visualizations. In this work, we present four categories of data physicalization concepts that were tested with public event visitors in a university context. The goal was to create data physicalizations from simple, affordable materials to engage visitors in data collection and visualization in a playful way.

We present a method of creating living computer-aided drawings by depositing mold spores onto a growth medium using a modified 3D printer. Our approach combines the precision of computerized numerical control with the organic growth of fungi to yield an aesthetic and evolving viewing experience. The organic element of the drawing results in unique and unexpected artifacts driven by environmental factors and manufacturing inconsistencies. The microscopic spores, invisible to the naked eye, also allow for a sense of anticipation and surprise as a drawing slowly develops. Exploring the possibilities of mold-based media, we examined the color, growth pattern, and species interaction of two non-toxic fungal species. In this paper, we address the technical challenges of building a reliable mold printer, explore different methods of preservation, and conclude with a discussion regarding the artistic possibilities of creating living mold drawings.

This paper investigates the relationship between menu design and hand positions in relation to the assessment of end users with main focus on usability, user preference, and potential adaptions to different hand positions. Sixteen (N=16) participants first participated in a co-design workshop, in which they proposed menu designs for different hand grips. Based on the design proposals, a selection of menu designs were derived and implemented in a mobile app prototype, on which a menu selection study was conducted to investigate performance and perceived usability of the menus in one-handed and two-handed interaction. The results include user ratings and performance, which highlight the need for mobile menus to be adapted for different hand positions. Based on that, we derive design recommendations for more adaptive, user-centric and ergonomic mobile menu designs to match the natural interactions of users.

Introducing interactive components into furniture has proven difficult due to the different lifespans of furniture and digital devices. We present Foxels, a modular, smart furniture concept that allows users to create their own interactive furniture on demand by simply snapping together individual building blocks. The modular design makes the system flexible to accommodate a variety of interactive furniture setups, making it particularly well-suited for re-configurable spaces. Considering the trade-off between ease-of-use and high versatility, we explored a number of interaction methods that can be applied to modular interactive furniture, thereby extending the well-known tangible programming paradigm. After explaining our implementation, we demonstrate the validity of the proposed concepts by presenting how Foxels can be used in an ideation workshop along with many additional real-world examples.

We present RESi (Resistive tExtile Sensor Interfaces), a novel sensing approach enabling a new kind of yarn-based, resistive pressure sensing. The core of RESi builds on a newly designed yarn, which features conductive and resistive properties. We run a technical study to characterize the behaviour of the yarn and to determine the sensing principle. We demonstrate how the yarn can be used as a pressure sensor and discuss how specific issues, such as connecting the soft textile sensor with the rigid electronics can be solved. In addition, we present a platform-independent API that allows rapid prototyping. To show its versatility, we present applications developed with different textile manufacturing techniques, including hand sewing, machine sewing, and weaving. RESi is a novel technology, enabling textile pressure sensing to augment everyday objects with interactive capabilities.

Over the past centuries, our lives have become increasingly sedentary. Having an office job today, all too often involves sitting at a computer, performing the same small repetitive movements with our fingers, hands, and eyes over and over again. The shape, size and form of computing technology have influenced and placed limits on the physical movements that we perform throughout the day. Our research thus focuses on the question how human-computer interaction can fluently embed interactive technology into our workplaces to allow for more physically active working styles, and re-introduce diverse bodily movements in to our work routine. The present work describes how we are approaching this topic from a dual design perspective: macro-level support of smooth transition between different work postures, and micro-level design of bodily interaction technologies that increasingly acknowledge the richness of human motor skills.

During everyday office work we are used to controlling our computers with keyboard and mouse, while the majority of our body remains unchallenged and the physical workspace around us stays largely unattended. Addressing this untapped potential, we explore the concept of turning a flexible office chair into a ubiquitous input device. To facilitate daily desktop work, we propose the utilization of semaphoric chair gestures that can be assigned to specific application functionalities. The exploration of two usage scenarios in the context of focused and peripheral interaction demonstrates high potential of chair gestures as additional input modality for opportunistic, hands-free interaction.

In this paper, we present Presstures, an extension to current multi-touch operations that enriches common multi-finger gestures with pressure information. By using the initially applied pressure level for implicit mode switching, a gesture can be enhanced with different functionalities to enlarge the interaction space for multi-touch. To evaluate the feasibility of our concept, we conducted an experiment, which indicates good human sensorimotor skills for performing multi-touch gestures with a few number of pressure levels and without any additional feedback. Based on the experimental results, we discuss implications for the design of pressure-sensitive multi-touch gestures, and propose application scenarios that make optimal use of our concept.

Post-it notes are a popular paper format that serves a multitude of purposes in our daily lives, as they provide excellent affordances for quick capturing of informal notes, and location-sensitive reminding. In this paper, we present Move-it, a system that combines Post-it notes with a technologically enhanced paperclip to demonstrate how a passive piece of paper can be turned into an "active" medium that conveys information through motion. We present two application examples that investigate the applicability of Move-it sticky notes for ambient information awareness. In comparison to existing notification systems, experimental results show that they reduce negative effects of interruptions on emotional state and performance, and provide unique affordances by combining advantages of physical and digital systems into a novel active paper interface.